Archive for December, 2011

I decided to publish one of my favorite unpublished portraits from New York fashion week in honor of the New Year. I have such a huge archive of photos that I still haven’t published. Rather than subject you guys to any more obnoxious retrospectives featuring photos you’ve already seen and covering things you already know (which I did below, if you’re interested), I figured why not celebrate the arrival of 2012 with something new?

Before I started this blog in the summer of 2010, I felt kind of lost, like I hadn’t figured out where I was supposed to be heading in life. It wasn’t until this website gained some traction, in early 2011, that magical things started happening. First, I started working with PinkMemo and Refinery29 as a contributing writer and photographer in January. Then in February, Marcus Riley of NBC Chicago filmed a documentary about me taking street-style photographs outside of New York fashion week.

In April, I signed a contract with Timberland to photograph their Man-On-Street social media campaign for the relaunch of classic workboot. It was my first big assignment, and was my first taste of the advertising world. Then came more corporate projects with companies like Oliver Peoples, J Brand Jeans, and Proctor & Gamble to name a few.

And who could forget the collaboration Jena Gambaccini and I did with Microsoft Bing?!

A collaboration between the Gap and Vogue magazine flew me out to Los Angeles to visit the Gap’s design headquarters for an exclusive preview of their Fall collection. It was a life-changing experience to see how companies take us bloggers seriously.

And last, but certainly not least, my collaboration with True Religion and Milk Studios fulfilled a life-long dream to be backstage at New York fashion week. In exchange for taking five street-style photos a day for True Religion, I had backstage VIP passes to every show at Milk Studios. It was an enormous privilege to have all-access passes. I always said I’d know my blog was successful if I ever had the opportunity to go backstage at NYFW. And it happened, only one year after starting my blog.

I am also thankful to the people at The Feast and NBC Chicago for featuring me again this fall in a video about how to get spotted by street-style photographers like me.

I am infinitely blessed to have two parents whose support allowed me to follow my dreams over the past year. Both are dreamers themselves; my father retired in his mid-30s to become a cattle rancher (one of the reasons we moved to Arkansas); my mother is a life-long adventurer who climbed to the top of Mt. Aconcagua (the highest mountain in South America) in her 40s. At the same time, both have vigorously encouraged me to figure out a way to translate my blog’s popularity and success into a real career. The work that I’ve done with corporate clients showed me that what I really love is coming up with creative strategies and executing them for brands. I graduate from DePaul in June with a Master of Science in Management. I only have two classes left and if everything goes well I’ll land a position at an advertising agency before then!